A Productive Weekend

Hi everyone!  Can you believe it's the last day of May?!  I want to thank all of you who left such nice comments on my wedding anniversary blog post -- I appreciate you so much!!  You all are the best.  :)

I hope you had a nice Memorial Day weekend with family and loved ones.  

I saw some really nice posts honoring the service and sacrifice of our military through the years.  I love to read these wonderful posts.  I didn't have time to write on my blog this weekend because Mr. Forest Manor was home for four days, and we stayed very busy.

I planted flowers and pulled some weeds, and I got the porch cleaned off from all the spring pollen.

  Hal very kindly washed and waxed my car, as well as helped me get some of the bigger weeds out of our shrubbery in front of the house.  We got a lot accomplished over those four days.

For the most part, I planted the same variety of flowers I've planted for the past two summers.  Last year, I waited too late to purchase mine, and they were already leggy and tired looking.  The plants I found this year are so healthy and pretty.  I hope they do well through the summer.  By the way, the clear plastic forks are to keep the pesky squirrels from digging in my plants and throwing dirt out all over the porch.  I've used them for the past two summers, and they've really done the trick.

I added something a little different this year.  We removed our Kennedy rockers from the front porch because the paint looks awful.  They're in need of a new paint job, and until then I wanted to fill in the empty space on the porch.  I remembered this milk can from our basement room, and I think it's just the trick.  Remember when these were all the rage?  My uncle painted, antiqued, and decoupaged this one many years ago for my maternal grandparents.  When my grandmother died about ten years ago, my mom and uncle cleaned out her house.  My uncle talked me into taking this milk can, even though I didn't think I'd have a use for it.  I'm so glad he persuaded me to take it.  It's in great condition, and I really like the vintage look, especially for summer.

Here's the other side of the porch; most of my regular readers have seen this before.  This combination just suits me -- salmon pink geraniums, lobelias, million bells, caladiums, and autumn ferns.

Another thing I want to share is this project my dear husband has been working on with our porch lights.  We bought these brass porch lights at our favorite local lighting store about 12 years ago.  A couple of years ago, I noticed they were looking pretty sad.  Obviously, the glass needs cleaning, but in addition, all the brass is really tarnished and pitted.  So we returned to the lighting store to look at some new fixtures.  I had thought about switching to black or bronze, but everything they had that we really liked cost a fortune much more than we wanted to spend.  

We talked to a gentleman who has helped us in the past.  He always seems to remember us, and he said those older fixtures were actually solid brass, and we'd do better to keep them and clean them up because they were really well-made.  He had us bring in one of the fixtures for him to look at, and he told us exactly how to go about sanding, cleaning, and oiling them to look like new again (or almost).  

Ta-daa!!  Doesn't this look so much better?  Basically, what we did was to remove the shiny lacquer from the fixture, so it looks more like an antique brass now, with a softer finish.  These are solid, heavy fixtures, and I'm so thankful to the gentleman from Wilson Electric for taking the time to show us this.  He could have just told us that the fixtures were shot and tried to sell us some really high-priced new ones.  I love it when sales people are honest; this did save us a good bit of money and it makes the porch look better too.

We still have one fixture left to do, and I'm so impressed with the good job Hal did on the first one.  These are small things and changes we've made, but it's the little details that really make a difference sometimes.

Also, I have one rose blooming, and after taking this picture, I noticed the bud to the right of the one in bloom.  I thought they were all bloomed out for now, so this was a nice surprise.  :)

A few last pictures --

We need to get replacement windows, and I hope it will be sooner rather than later.  I have to re-pot the fern above, by the way.  It's still in its plastic container because I ran out of time and energy this weekend.  ;)

How did you spend your Memorial Day weekend?  Next year, I hope we can go to the D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia.  We saw it briefly years ago, but didn't get to take the guided tour.  I've been reading about it, and it really is quite a tribute.

Thank you so much for visiting me, and I hope you have a wonderful week!  I read and appreciate every one of your comments.

Hugs,

Denise